The National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) has strongly criticized former Nigerian Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd), for admitting, more than 31 years later, that the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The student body also condemned the accolades showered on Babangida by some Nigerians and the massive N16 billion donation made during the launch of his memoir, A Journey in Service, last week in Abuja.
In a statement signed on Monday by its national president, Kehinde Thomas, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, NAOSS described Babangida’s admission as “not only an act of cowardice but confessing to the obvious.”
Thomas expressed disappointment that the former military ruler blamed the annulment of the June 12 election on the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, instead of taking full responsibility.
“One wonders what kept an acclaimed combatant soldier, military tank specialist, and a General, for over three decades before he came to take responsibility for what happened back then. Why did he just come out to blame the late General Sanni Abacha for standing stoutly against the declaration of Abiola as winner of the poll? He had an ample opportunity to set the record straight while Abacha was still alive. His confession now reeks of nothing but cowardice.”
Thomas argued that Babangida’s admission does not atone for the bloodshed and suffering that followed the annulment, stressing that as Head of State at the time, he had the power to stand against the injustice meted out to Abiola and the people of the southwest.
According to him, the memoir is “nothing but another layer of lies to cover the truth and failure to address some issues being shrouded in darkness.”
NAOSS declared that Ogun State students would not accept Babangida’s “latter-day confession of a Maradona” and insisted that he should have also acknowledged other atrocities committed under his regime.
Thomas further criticized Nigerians who celebrated IBB at the memoir launch and donated huge sums, stating that their actions dishonored the sacrifices made by the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
“However, it is appalling and disheartening to see that the book launch grossed nothing less than N16b, while some prominent Nigerians eulogized and poured encomium on IBB at the event. Such actions, no doubt, betrayed the sacrifice and the supreme price paid by that great Nigerian and proud son of Ogun. We are very sure that the late M.K.O Abiola will be turning in his grave if he could see that IBB, who was a harbinger of the darkest era in the annal of Nigeria, is today being celebrated as a hero.”
The association also faulted Babangida’s failure to address the unresolved murder of investigative journalist Dele Giwa, among other alleged state-sponsored crimes.
“Apart from the issue of June 12, 1993, why did IBB fail to tell us who murdered Dele Giwa, an investigative journalist who was killed with a letter bomb? What of other atrocities carried out by his foot soldiers?”
NAOSS concluded that Babangida’s memoir did not provide any new insights but rather confirmed the long-standing perception of his role in Nigeria’s troubled past.
